Star Light, Star Bright
by Elenhin
Summary: Star light, star bright. It was just another star cut out of marble, but it meant so much more to James.


Author's note: This is a one-shot I wrote to explore the relationship between Alec and James. I am intending to post a longer story featuring the two of them later, and this is partly to explore their different backgrounds first.

Just after the mission where Alec was captured and believed to be dead, and James fights to make sure he is not forgotten.

Very big thanks goes to Earendil Eldar for beta work.

Disclaimer: I do not own James Bond, Alec Trevelyan or any other James Bond related item or person. I have only borrowed the characters and will return them. Not even making any serious attempt at kidnapping Alec, and as I have gotten some special glue form Q, he shall appear utterly unharmed.

_**Star Light, Star Bright

* * *

**_

Who was it that had called stars to look like diamonds? James wondered. He did not think they did, it was more like rhinestones. Rhinestones on a velvet canopy, they sparkled and glittered. It was the perfect romantic setting for a night.

Take a girl out beneath that canopy, drape a chain with those small sparkling stones around her neck, or put a ring on her finger, and she was yours.

Alec preferred to flatter them, he would say that the diamonds in the sky were equal to those in her eyes.

_James stood kissing the girl vigorously. He wanted her badly, he wanted someone to share his bed with, someone warm that could drive the chill away. So he had found a girl that was also looking for a companion. _

_He was kissing her now, teasing her so that she would not slip back inside but actually go with him instead. Desiring more of what he made clear he would give her. She wanted it as well, he could tell, she moved greedily into his arms, and he knew there was no longer any risk she'd slip back inside the pub and find someone new. _

_Alec stood beside him with a girl of his own. Dark haired against James' blonde. He was not ravaging her just yet the way James was, he had an arm around her, a hand on her cheek, and was speaking softly to her. Looking up at the star filled night sky, and then looking at her._

_James was noticing it out of the corner of his eyes, and for a moment there he thought that Alec was just wasting time. What would he himself do if Alec lost the girl? Would he have to put his own plans on hold so that his partner would not be forced to face a cold night alone? _

_Cold because of the terrors they had seen not so many hours before, cold because of the screams that still echoed in their ears. That made him look over his shoulder only to find nothing. _

_He wished Alec would hurry up so that the two of them could leave. Whatever was he doing anyway? Talking about the stars when he could be kissing? Yet as he watched the girl seemed to melt into Alec's arms, leaning back against him, and that was before Alec had even worked his magic on her and kissed her. So his talk about stars and how they shone in her eyes had done some good after all. _

The best ball players were referred to as the star players, there were movie stars. Race car drivers were stars, all that was good was represented with a star it seemed. All from the star on your spelling card in school, to James Dean who burned out in a bright flash.

James Bond was a star agent, the best.

Alec Trevelyan was as close to the best that James would ever admit anyone else to be.

Moneypenny would give James a cold look and claim he had named himself the star agent of them all.

"_You've named yourself star James, and I'm not impressed," Moneypenny informed him coldly. "This is a teams game, and there are no star players."  
_

_James raised his eyebrows questioningly and was about to try and win her over with some charming comment. Then he was interrupted by a snigger and he turned and glared at Alec. _

_The damn bastard was standing sniggering at him, and would not be subdued by the glares. _

_No, the bastard even had the guts to speak up. "Black hole, Moneypenny, the way he sucks up all praise and leaves none for the rest of us."_

_James considering punching him in the face, it would at least shut up that insolent sniggering, but if he did that, there would be no way to win Moneypenny over. They were scheduled for hand to hand combat practice later, Alec would get his due punishment then. _

There were the stars made out of gold paper to hang on walls, cut out by kids who showed them to their parents and were praised for their clumsy attempts at imitating the world's wonders.

There were the stars that lovesick girls wrote all around the name of some poor lad, together with hearts and whatever.

There were stars that would always be there, just as the ones in the sky would.

They were all beautiful in their own way he supposed.

He was looking at a star canopy now.

Star light, star bright, but this star did not shine.

A star cut out of stone, etched in a marble wall. Black marble that made the star shine with a dull glow. There was a night filled with them, standing in front of his eyes.

Every agent that had been killed, lost, taken and mutilated was there before him.

All of them etched into an anonymous star on a black marble wall. He had walked past them so many times, sometimes even stopping to wonder and think about all the agents there. Then he would always shrug that feeling away, thinking to himself that they had just not been good enough.

"_Stars are beautiful, like a sparkling rhinestone. The value is how it sparkles and glitters even on the darkest night." The words spoken in such an incredible soft tone. "But those are not beautiful at all, I would rather there were no need for them." A hand reaching out to touch a star lightly. "To think that something so warm and beautiful can be so cold and cruel at the same time." _

Then Alec had turned to walk away.

He recalled the words, for he had frowned at them, not understanding why it would make Alec so upset. The memorial wall was after all a way to remember those who had died in the service, and it was an honor offered to those who could never be known by a name for their good deeds, not when everything had been done in secret.

So there was no name on the stars, just a cold marble cut, and one of them was newer than the others, just recently cut into the canopy beside the others.

How many times had he reached out his hand and touched it already, felt the cold marble that would never be warm beneath his finger tips? How many times had he heard those words Alec had once said echo in his head as he traced the outline of a sad star?

How many times had he thought that he finally understood what Alec meant, now that it was too late. He couldn't blame it on Alec just not being good enough, for Alec was one of the best that had ever been.

He could not blame it on a bad partner, for that had been him. He was the one that had come out from behind the shelter and seen Alec on his knees, gun to his head. He had seen the gun flare, heard the deafening roar of the explosion, and seen Alec crumble. The timers had counted down, James had gotten away, and the building exploded with a cloud of fire.

Like a supernova, that was how Alec had died. Like a supernova destroying all in its path, and he reached out and touched the star again.

He could almost imagine Alec standing there beside him as he had done so often. Quietly, maybe thinking about the family that an orphan boy had never known.

Alec with a sad look in his eyes, he always seemed to associate all those stars with the name and face of a lost agent.

James could never do that, to him they were all the same pattern cut out of a marble slab, and even if he liked their beauty and the honor they offered lost agents, that was all there was to it.

Even now they were all anonymous to him, all except one, he did not know why, but one of them did not look like the others. It was cruel in the design, cold in the appearance, and it was the one that was there because Alec Trevelyan was no more.

Star light, star bright.

The End

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This was the eight one shot. I hope you all enjoyed it, here is also review response for the seventh one. I want to thank everyone who have read those stories.

/Elenhin

Brothers Grimm: Glad you liked it, I'm trying to establish a life here for Alec and James. Off an on duty, as well as how it was for James without Alec after he was captured. I try to use all of this as a background for a longer fic, since I believe that their reaction then, would depend on what happened before.

Earendil Eldar: Yeah, at this point in it, James is the one that guards Alec's memory. Just another star on the wall, that would be here. It always sounds so heart wrenching when Alec says that in the movie, I feel so sorry for him there.

Iolana Khenemet: Yes, and here is the star. I feel for the poor lad, to know that after all he did, all he went through, all it ever got him was a star on a wall, and not even a name there. Poor Alec, I really think the world owe it to him to save him at least once. Ah, the coins, poor Alec once more, got his lunch money melted. I thought it was the kind of solution he would pick. Simple and effective.

Silveni: Yes, the fight for who is the better seems to be the way between them. Then after Alec was lost, James would be focusing more and more on the good things, and there would no longer be any need to compete. He would be the best one that was there, even if he claimed that Alec was the best before. Its kinda complicated, it also have to do with the fact that you never know what you have until you lose it. My longer story will be up when it is finished. I prefer to write all of it first, and post later when it is done. It is slow writing it, but I have about ten chapters now. I also think that the everyday life is very important here, both as a base for that fic, and because it is what made the two of them the way they are. I might also admit that I like depth as well, and subtle things that make a lot of difference in the end. Those one shots has some things in them that will mean more later, at least some of them do.


End file.
